


I don't want a pet, I want you home

by superwholocked_wizard



Series: I want you home [1]
Category: Iron Man (Movies)
Genre: 8 microsoft word pages of PAIN, 8 year old tony stark daughter, Adoption, Adoptive Daughter, Angst, Awesome Pepper Potts, But he's there - Freeform, Father!Tony - Freeform, Father!Tony Stark, Happy hogan is in it sort of, I promise, Iron Dad, Iron Man - Freeform, Other, Tony Stark has a daughter, adopted!stark, afghan cave tony, but anyway, dad!stark au, daughter!stark au, during iron man, have fun, i warned you, lol nope i aint a jesus person, not really heavily mentioned, pepper is a cool mum, sfw, takes place during iron man, there be no sex in this here house of jesus, tony goes missing, tony stark as a father, tony stark is a good father fight me on this
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-22
Updated: 2017-09-22
Packaged: 2019-01-04 01:47:51
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,039
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12159108
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/superwholocked_wizard/pseuds/superwholocked_wizard
Summary: You all know the story of Tony Stark going missing in the Afghan caves, you all know how he escaped and his brave journey to becoming Iron Man, but what if Tony Stark had an adopted daughter, and how would she feel when her dad doesn’t come home?If Tony Stark had a daughter and how she would cope with him being gone.





	I don't want a pet, I want you home

**Author's Note:**

> TONY AND HIS DAUGHTER BITCHES GET READY TO CRY
> 
> I am a firm believer that Tony Stark is a good father fite me
> 
> as per usual, originally posted on: ao3-hipster-fangirl-trash.tumblr.com
> 
> not a gay fanfiction (I know, its weird for me) but I've had this idea for years and I might start a series :/ depends
> 
> anyway, have some angsty father daughter missing each other stuff
> 
> sophie xx

She knew it was going to hurt, saying goodbye to Tony, even though it was just for a couple of days, she could tell she would still miss him. After all, she was only 8 at the time, and heavily reliant on Pepper and her father, maybe she knew what was about to happen? No. How could she? No one could have predicted that.

When Alex woke in the morning to the sound of bags hitting the living room floor, she knew that Tony was going. She recognised that sound from when she was a kid, all the way to the present day. It meant another press conference/ demonstration/ trip where he would be gone for a little longer than he promised, but he always came back, and that was what was important.

She walked out of her room to see two duffel bags filled with suits, clothes and other necessities, which looked like it would last Tony about a week before he had to do laundry.

Tony looked up from whatever device he was holding to see his yawning adopted daughter paddling out into the main room, her relatively small toy looking big nestled under her arm and a fist rubbing at her eye. 

“Morning kiddo.”

She gave him a sleepy smile and walked up to him, burying her face in his hip, feeling his hand rest gently on the top of her head. He played with the ends of her hair, which she had recently got cut short because ‘If Daisy from Great Gatsby can have short hair, why can’t I?’ 

She wasn’t Daisy though, she had dark brown hair that, instead of being styled in a wavy fashion, had gone with a straight cut line, and a fringe, her freckles were noticeable, not just a small spattering across the nose but all over her body, in every conceivable place. When Lex couldn’t sleep, Tony would trace constellations with the freckles on her face.

“Kiddo, I’m leaving for a few days,” He felt her nod on his leg, her hair getting slightly messier due to his hand still being present on the back of her head.

“Where are you going?” He heard her murmur into his trousers.

“Afghanistan, then a sejour in Florence, then straight home.”

She looked up at him, her hazel eyes filled with questions.

“Wait, why are you going to Afghanistan?”

“A test kiddo.”

She didn’t know what he did was dangerous, he kept her out of it as much as possible, she didn’t know he made weapons that killed people, and he sure as hell didn’t tell her that a lot of people wanted him dead. She was just a kid, she didn’t need that on her plate.

He kneeled down and leveled his eyes with hers, holding her shoulders gently.

“Do you want anything from there? A souvenir?” she gave a giggle and brought her teddy, it possibly used to be a dog, to her face and snuggled it, keeping an eye on Tony.

“Papa, I don’t need a souvenir.” He gave her a warm smile.

“Are you sure? How about a pet? A goat?”

She shrieked in laughter, the sound filling Tony with pure joy as he saw her eyes light up and felt her shake from happiness beneath his hands, still posed on her shoulders.

“Just don’t buy a goat. I don’t care what you do, just no goats. Promise?” He swore she made better financial decisions than him sometimes, even just saying that he would buy a goat made him want to impulsively get a whole farm of them just for the shit of it.

“Ok pumpkin, I promise, but only if you’re good for Pepper.” 

Lex nodded in response, lifting her pinkie for him to embrace his own with, and keep the promise.

~

Ho Yinsen listened intently as Tony recounted the last moments with his daughter before he left. How he had promised to come home in maximum a week, how the trust in his eyes was so pure. He told the stranger who had hooked a car battery to his body everything, tears streaking down his face as he tried desperately not to think of how his precious girl would react to her papa being missing. How, because she was from an orphanage, she had nightmares about Tony, Pepper and Happy never returning, and how that was coming true in that moment.

Ho Yinsen placed a reassuring hand on Tony’s shoulder.

“How old is she?”

“Ei-” Tony’s voice broke, more tears blurring his vision, “-she’s just eight.”

He hadn’t tried to think of Alex, as selfish as that sounded. In his last moment in front of the bomb, he didn’t think ‘what will happen to my daughter.’ He couldn’t allow himself to. If he did, he knew he would break, if he did, he was sure he wouldn’t be able to think clearly, wouldn’t be able to get home to her in one piece, and that’s all he wanted to right now. Get back home to her.

Yinsen nodded in a sage, pondering manner, before stating in a firm voice:

“You will get back to your family, as will I with mine.”

~

Lex didn’t hear about Tony’s disappearance until two days after it happened. She was walking around the house when she heard the front door open to see Pepper coming back from some fancy meeting thingy that she had been called to urgently this morning. 

Pepper closed the front door with her back to Lex, her posture slumped, and instead of clacking to the sofa to say hi, Pepper went straight for the bathroom.

Lex was staring at the door in confusion, trying to figure out why Pepper would deliberately ignore her. She was used to some corporate asshole trying to avoid her eye, but Pepper always said hi, always, it was like some stupid thing that had become so normal for her that it felt weird when it didn’t happen.

Pepper must have been in there for about 10 minutes, but it felt like an eternity, and by the time that she did come out of the bathroom, she had puffy red eyes, looking suspiciously like they’d been crying and miserably failing at trying to hide it. She saw Lex and felt herself sigh in defeat. She would have to be the one to tell an 8 year old girl that her papa had gone missing.

Pepper sat down next to Lex and looked at her shoes.

“Pip, are you ok?” Pepper almost felt herself break down at the silly nickname that Lex had given her the first day they met, not because of Peppers name, simply because she had a grape pip left on her arm from her lunch.

Pepper took in a deep breath. Alright, she was actually doing this.

“Lex, love, you know how your dad sometimes goes off and does silly things but always comes back?”

Lex nodded, still confused.

“Well, um, he’s-” she ran her hand over her face, rubbing her eyes “-Lex something’s happened.”

“What’s happened?” 

Pepper paused, a silence washing over them.

“Your dad, he’s in trouble.” Lex frowned at this.

“Pepper I know what arrested is.”

“Lex no its not that.” Pepper could feel the words brewing under the surface, ready to be said like a confession at a church, almost a dirty secret, something that people would feel ashamed of, but she had to say it nonetheless.

“Lex, he’s gone missing, he was last seen in a convoy of vehicles heading back to the landing strip, surrounded by soldiers, next thing we knew, well, he wasn’t there and the soldiers were…” She swallowed a lump in her throat, avoiding Lex’s eyes.

A tense silence spread over the room as Lex processed what she was being told. Tony was missing. He was… missing.

“No.”

Pepper looked up towards Lex, trying to read her only to find an emotionless mask taking place where Lex’s usually vibrant features stood.

“Lex honey-”

“No, he can’t be, he promised he’d be back in a week.” Her eyes were glassy and reflective, just not of what she was feeling.

“Lex, love, I’m sorry but he might not be coming back, that soon.”

Tears began to build in Lex’s eyes, clinging to her eyelashes and rolling down her face, which was still set in an immovable mask.

“No.”

“Lex please you have to list-”

“NO!”

A wave of pain hit Pepper accompanied with Lex’s scream which echoed off the walls, bouncing around the house and resonating in Peppers ears, making the knot in her throat that she had tried to cry away in the bathroom return at full force, choking her, making it harder for her to breath.

Lex had begun to cry, her features twisted into a mask of pain as she fell onto the floor, her entire body shaking as sobs overtook her. She couldn’t be left alone, not again.

Pepper ran towards her and scooped her up, wrapping her arms protectively around a child that she would consider her own, she let Lex sob into her jacket, not caring if it would be ruined, and eventually lulling her to sleep whilst tears still fell freely down her face. That night, when Lex woke up, she found herself in Tony’s room, with Pepper asleep on the other side of the bed, and despite the numerous attempts to wash the smell out, Lex could still smell Tony in the pillows, the grease from his workshop that he would sometimes smear on her nose, and that stupid cologne that he would always wear to try and disguise the smell of the grime, and surprisingly, instead of making her more upset, it simply lulled her back to a peaceful sleep.

~

The next week, Lex got suspended from school.

Pepper was in a board meeting, discussing what would happen to Tony’s accounts should he not return, to be honest it was just a bunch of big shot corporate dicks trying to weed themselves into Tony’s will which, thank god, had specifically stated that no matter her age, all of his wealth, investments, properties, material possessions and company property should go to Alexandra Eileen Stark, and Pepper had been named her caretaker.

Whilst this had all been incredibly touching, as well as frustrating to the corporate dicks and their lawyers, it had been quickly interrupted by a phone call on Peppers personal phone, turning out to be a summon from Lex’s school.

Pepper had wrapped up the meeting quickly, taken all of the paperwork and shoved it in her bag messily, and had Happy drive her to the school as quickly, her heels clicking on the tiled floor as she strode towards the principal's office, receiving a glare from a woman clutching a little girls bleeding, seemingly broken nose, before being ushered into the office by a flustered secretary who seemed to be holding a lifetime's supply of tissues and painkillers, and sat down on a large chair, beside a pissed looking 8 year old with split knuckles, and opposite a principal who seemed to have become very red in the face suddenly.

He leaned across the desk with his hand folded, looking down upon Lex in a condescending glare, before turning to Pepper with a quickly improvised false smile, which seemed to look like it hurt to put on.

“I hope you are aware, miss Potts, that fighting is not at all tolerated at this school.” She already hated him, his entire manner seemed to be made simply to make people comply to his way. Pepper had just been in a room full of people like him and she hated every second of it.

“Alright, cut to the chase, what did she apparently do wrong.” He seemed take aback by her brisk and cold tone, but nonetheless proceeded.

“Alexandra here, was caught fighting with a girl in the schoolyard, severly hurting her, and whilst this matter may have been provoked by nasty words it is nonetheless unnaceptable that a girl that age should-”

“Alex?” Pepper cut the man off in his rant, seeing him go a satisfyingly darker shade of red than before.

“Lex darling why did you hit her?”

Lex sniffed, wiping some snot away from her nose and bringing her legs onto the chair, her chin resting against her knees. The principal looked like he was about to protest but a deathly glare from Pepper silenced him completely.

“Lex?”

“She said I should be grateful.”

Pepper waited, trying to allow the silence to prompt her to continue.

“Grateful that my asshole dad is dead caus’ now I’m gonna be stinking rich.”

The principal rose in his chair, his eyes burning.

“We do not use that kind of language in here.” he hissed, almost spitting it out to her.

“Well THAT'S WHAT SHE SAID.” Lex shouted back, pointing an accusing finger to the bleeding girl outside the door, still stuffing tissues up her nose.

“Alex.” both the principal and Lex turned towards Pepper who had a professional demeanor.

“Did you break her nose?”

Lex nodded, looking down at her feet.

“Good to know,” the principal looked smugly towards Lex, almost like a taunting schoolkid, “d’you think an ice cream will make you feel better?”

The smug smile fell of the principal’s face as Lex looked up towards Pepper with a grin on her face, nodding towards her, and stood up grabbing her hand, both girls ignoring the indignant protests of the principal as they walked out towards the car.

On the way back, they stopped at a Baskin Robbins, taking their time to pick out whatever flavour, getting a certain type of cone and messing around with each other, sticking ice cream on the others nose, Pepper eventually getting gold medal ribbon, Lex cookies and cream, both of them unconsciously agreeing to avoid cotton candy, trying to forget that it was Tony’s favorite flavour, just because, every time he ate it, he described exactly why it was how it was, why it was that colour, and why it was that taste.

~

On the day that they received news that Tony had been found, Lex had been crying, not because it was a special occasion or anything important had happened, but because, when she woke up this morning on Tony’s side of the bed, she noticed that his mechanical greasy cologne smell had faded from the pillowcase.

She had noticed that the smell was fading about one month after he disappeared, but not having any tether with him hurt her more than anything. She missed how he would trace her freckles, how he would mess her hair up right after she’d brushed it, just caus. She missed how he would put on voices of different characters when he read her a book and how he would always always always bring her out to say goodnight to the moon and the stars before they went to bed, just because she didn’t want them to feel left out.

She missed Tony, missed him more than she could miss anyone else, and she cried for him.

She cried for something like 2 hours, the pillow that once tethered him to her muffling her sobs as she held it close to her, before she eventually tired herself out and fell into a dreamless sleep.

She was vaguely aware of someone shaking her awake, and heard someone calling her name to wake her up, she sort of felt being lifted into a car, Peppers familiar arms wrapped around her, keeping her safe. She wasn’t aware she was waking up until she saw that she was strapped in a car, her dog teddy on her side, and a small blanket draped around her, leaning against someone’s side.

“Alex? Alex are you awake?” she looked up and saw Pepper looking down on her with a beaming white smile.

“Mmmhhhh.” Lex replied, trying to nuzzle back into Peppers hip and go back to sleep, only to have Pepper gently guide her to the sitting position, waking Lex up more.

“Lex we have great news.” She looked back up at Pepper studying her face for a bit, finally noticing the red rings around her eyes and the tear stains of her cheeks.

Lex sat up straighter, clutching on her dog tighter in her arms as she searched for any pain in Peppers expression, anything indicating bad news, only to find her radiating joy.

“They found him, they found Tony.”

Whatever ensued in the car ride, Lex couldn’t remember most of it. Everything went blurry, which she suspected was from a large amount of tears, and most of her incoherent mumbling and sobbing was shushed by Pepper, who assured her that she wasn’t lying and that everything was ok. Everything was good.

She vaguely remembered pulling up at an airport, and stepping outside of the car, but she did remember the waiting, the tense waiting that made her want to rip her own eyes out. But she waited as she had to, and when the C-130 Hercules finally landed, and its cargo door opened to reveal a somewhat bruised and battered Tony Stark, she couldn’t wait any longer.

Her feet moved before she was aware of what she was doing, her small arms frantically moving, trying to push her faster as more tears fell that were swept away from the wind of the engines, ran up the ramp and into one of Tony’s arms as he hoisted her up and brought her close to him, her arms wrapping around his neck and her hands curling into fists, but not out of anger this time, out of a desperation to never let this man go again.

She sobbed into his shirt and onto his neck, and felt his tears fall on her pajamas that she hadn’t changed out of, as they held onto each other for an eternity and a half.

Tony began to walk down the ramp with Lex still on his arm, waving off the paramedics, and walking directly to Pepper, thanking her for taking care of his girl, his voice almost completely breaking as he stood in front of her, back, alive and reunited.

He had promised to come home, and he did.


End file.
